Choose fabrics for your weighted blanket like a pro!

“I am sensitive to heat, and also have to be really careful about what fabrics touch my skin — which fabric should I choose for my weighted blanket?”

This question is a variation on a theme I hear on a regular basis, so if you have questions about choosing a fabric for your weighted blanket, you’re in great company.

Distract your kids for about 3min (or grab a cup of coffee) and I’ll show you the fabrics I use for weighted blankets. At the end, you will understand the differences between the fabrics and which one is best suited to your sensitivities and preferences.

(The video includes captions, and the transcript is below if you’d prefer to read instead of watch).

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[Video Transcript]

Hello, I’m Lora with Lora’s Weighted Blankets. Today let’s talk about fabric options. There are a couple of different options, they each have benefits and drawbacks, depending on your specific situation, your sensitivities, your texture sensitivities, your heat sensitivities. Or maybe you don’t have any of those you just really like a particular kind of fabric. Let’s take a look at each of the options and see what’s there.

The first one we’ll look at is a cotton blanket, with cotton on both sides. You can kind of see the pellets thru the blanket, and you can definitely feel the pellets. If you have a big pile of heavy blankets on your bed because you need the pressure but you’re overheating underneath them because you’re heat sensitive – this 100% cotton would be the choice for you. Also, if you have texture sensitivities in addition to heat sensitivities, this high-quality Kona cotton is perfect. This blanket is breathable enough that I can feel air movement thru the blanket from a fan set on low.

The next blanket is made with satin cotton on one side, and minky on the other. People who tell me that they are heat sensitive often ask about a minky blanket. If that is what you’re looking for, this is a low-pile minky and this is a plush minky. If you are heat sensitive, what I recommend is to choose a cotton or a satin-cotton to go with the minky. Satin-cotton is a natural fabric, so it’s a little more breathable and also cool to the touch. It can also provide some sensory input — some people really enjoy being able to rub the silk between their fingers. Here’s the minky on the other side. This is a great way to make the blanket reversible, if you want cool to touch in the summertime, and a little bit warmer in the wintertime.

Minky, after the satin cotton, is one of my very favorites. The texture feels amazing. If you’re not very heat-sensitive, especially if you live in a cooler climate where you’re not worried about overheating, minky is a great choice. However, if you are heat sensitive, minky is made with 100% polyester, and not being a natural fabric, is not going to have the same breathability qualities as a cotton or satin-cotton fabric, and may not be the best choice.

Here is a winter-fleece, which is soft to touch, similar to the minky, but not quite as soft. Fleece fabrics are available in a wide variety of prints, especially if you are wanting a character print. I think that this is the primary draw to the fleece as opposed to the minky.

The last fabric I want to talk about is flannel. It’s a soft fabric. It’s 100% cotton, so it’s breathable, similar to the first blanket we talked about, but might be a little bit warmer. One of the concerns with a flannel fabric is that sometimes it will pill in the wash. That I something you’ll want to think about when considering the possibility of choosing a flannel fabric.